Dark Souls III is one of the best games I’ve ever played.
In this review, I will attempt to explain why this playthrough (my 2nd) was one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences of my life. Also, I’m probably gonna sound pretentious and overly positive but this is just how I feel :) Also spoilers.

Dark Souls III was the first FromSoftware game I ever played. I was with a friend of mine who had just bought it and we took turns trying to beat Iudex Gundyr, the first boss. On one of my turns, I finally managed to beat him and we cheered in unison. About a month later I asked if I could borrow the game since he wasn't playing it at all and that's how it all started.

55 hours and an unfathomable amount of deaths later I beat the game. I was struggling for pretty much the entire run, just barely scraping by. Even with YouTube guides and trying to get every Estus shard and the best armor, Aldrich, Dancer, and Dragonslayer Armor all took me 40+ attempts each.
The first playthrough was one of anger sure, but also wonder and excitement.
It did something that I think the FromSoftware games do for a lot of people: Rekindle a love for video games.
The visual storytelling and the difficulty kept me hooked and for months I played this game on and off. Finally, I beat the final boss on my first attempt (the only boss that I got on my first attempt) after a weekend of non-stop playing and stared at those credits with an immense feeling of satisfaction.
After that, I played the major FromSoftware games as soon as I could. Those being: Bloodborne, Dark Souls, Sekiro, and finally Elden Ring on release date.

After finishing Elden Ring, I felt that urge to play another FromSoftware game. I had always wanted to replay the first FromSoftware game that I played so I said why the hell not and booted it up.
There was, without exaggeration, not a single spot where I didn’t enjoy this game.
The sense of re-discovery, remembering everything, and finding so many new things. I explored just about every corner of every area just because I didn't want to miss anything. What I thought would be a quick boss rush playthrough turned into one of near completion. (I got every boss but not every single item, that sort of thing).

Though the world doesn't have quite the interconnectivity of the first half of Dark Souls 1, every area has so much going on. The entirety of the Grand Archives is just one bonfire and various shortcuts that you discover, same goes for the Cleansing Chapel bonfire and more.
And the exploration is so rewarding! Every time I thought an area had shown me everything it had, I found some underground secret layer with a giant who had a ring that fit my build and a new covenant or some crazy shit like that.
I didn't explore everything because I wanted to get every achievement, I did because it was fun.

This game heavily borrows from the first game even in structure. But in this game, the second half was just as good as the first if not better. Working your way up from the swamps and forests to battle magnificent bosses such as Pontiff Sulyvahn and the Twin Princes was so incredibly satisfying.
It starts in the castle to give you a sense of what's to come and what the main focus of the game is. Then many paths open for you to explore and slowly and steadily you work your way back to that castle feeling truly powerful and prepared. I just cannot stress enough how much fun I had with everything the game threw at me.

FromSoft clearly learned a lot from Bloodborne and perfectly implemented the fast combat of that game into the world of Dark Souls. It's basically up to you whether you play this like Bloodborne or Dark Souls 1 and both are perfectly valid choices.

Speaking of Dark Souls 1, a lot of people criticized this game for being too similar to that game. And I totally understand that. A lot of areas and characters are similar and sometimes even identical to the first game. I think the game actually introduces a lot of new ideas, especially in regard to combat and enemy variety. I also think the similarities to the first game are nearly all improved or used to amplify the themes. Here’s what I mean by that:

I would describe the callbacks in Dark Souls III to be a smile that fades into an empty sadness. You’re finally back in the world of Dark Souls after all these years, and FromSoft easily could've had some cheap fanservice but instead, they manipulated the feeling of nostalgia into sadness.
When the player arrives in Anor Londo he is hit by a wave of nostalgia. The renowned area from the first game is back, what new exciting things shall be uncovered?
But while Anor Londo in the first game was in a perpetual state of a beautiful sunset, in Dark Souls III it is a pale moon.
The city is cold, dark, and infested and when you arrive at the boss at the end of the area you are greeted by Gwyndolin, a boss from the first game. But he is being devoured by a horrifying sludge, his corpse manipulated into the battle.
Dragonslayer Ornstein’s armor lies empty by the Nameless King, his friend whom he sought on a great quest.
Our favorite Onion Knight is forced to kill his friend Yhorm after he broke his promise. The Asylum Demon is now completely covered in ash barely holding itself together.
A Demon King, the last of his line in an area full of burned corpses. The Abyss Watchers endlessly fighting each other.
If we find the secret area behind Oceiros we will find an exact replica of the first area of the game, only dead and covered in darkness. If Dark Souls is flame then Dark Souls III is ash.

The final boss, the Soul of Cinder, is the perfect representation of the game as a whole. It is literally an amalgamation of all the Lords of Cinder and everyone who has linked the first flame. It throws just about every combat style you can imagine at you. Sword, spear, magic, heavy aerial attacks, it is desperately holding on just as the world of Dark Souls III is holding onto what it was in Dark Souls 1.
And then, in the second phase, it lunges at you exactly like Gwyn did at the start of his fight in Dark Souls 1 and the familiar piano notes enter the stage.

Finally, you have the decision to hold onto the flame or leave the world to darkness. The flame is tiny at this point and you sit alone by it, holding onto what once was a living thing and is now an empty void. Do you desperately hold onto it becoming hollow like the world of Dark Souls III or do you leave it behind, and move forward?

Dark Souls III is one of my favorite games of all time.
I love the vivid areas, the exhilarating boss fights, the incredible music, and the atmospheric and deeply meaningful world.

10/10 bye-bye.

Sem algjör FromSoft snáði frá svona 2018 var ég yfir mig spenntur þegar að "open word Dark Souls" var að koma út. Fyrsta skipti sem ég hef keypt leik daginn sem hann kom út (ekki að nefna það að hann kom út á afmælinu mínu, ertekka djóka!!!).
Vikurnar að spila hann á hverjum degi og spjalla við vini mína um hann var ótrúlegt. Heimurinn, exploration og hversu miklu úr öllum hinum leikjunum sem þeir náðu að blanda í þennan er algjör snilld.
Því miður hef ég einn galla sem hindraði mig frá því að elska leikinn til fulls og það var erfiðleikarjafnvægið. Afþví leikurinn er svo opinn þá er ekki alltaf skýrt hvað er "best" að gera næst. Ókosturinn við það er að með flesta bossa sem ég lenti í eftir fyrstu 20-30 tímanna voru þeir annaðhvort of erfiðir eða of léttir. Í seinni helming leiksins endaði það á því að ég neyddi mig í að nota summons og items til að koma mér áfram sem mér finnst bara alls ekki jafn gaman.
Margir bossar hefðu verið uppáhaldið mitt hefðu árásirnar þeirra ekki tekið allan health barinn minn. Eins og Dunkey sagði, "having super aggressive enemies with crazy combos and unpredictable attacks is the fun kind of difficulty, but making those moves hit for your entire health bar is fucking lame and cheap". Hefði ekki getað orðað það betur.
Margir mundu segja við þessu að ef maður lendir í einhverju erfiðu þá hvetur það þig til að fara að skoða aðra staði og já! Það er rétt. En oft þegar ég gerði það þá fór ég í heilt ævintýri en svo kom ég aftur og þá var ég overleveled og bossinn dó í einni tilraun:(
Fyrir utan þetta, sem varpaði skugga á mikið af leiknum fyrir mig þá er þetta æðisleg upplifun.
Ég held að þetta sé instant classic sem verður munað eftir árum saman. Ákveðnir hlutir sem gerast létu mig hugsa um hvernig það var þegar að Dark Souls kom út 2011 og fólk fór í gegnum Blighttown og sá Anor Londo í fyrsta skipti. Ég get ímindað mér að margt sem ég upplifaði hér var slík tilfinning.
Hlakka til að spila hann aftur og prófa mismunandi builds, það er svo margt sem hægt er að gera.
Magnað stuff...